Tuesday, August 2, 2016

A quantum of umbrage: Dog Bites Trump

There wasn't enough room for all the ticket holders at Friday's rally for Donald Trump at UCCS, who called out the fire marshal several times during his speech.

11 News spoke to Brett Lacey, who said the problem was with the event. He said organizers handed out too many tickets and there wasn't enough space in the auditorium for that many people.

"Now because of your fire marshal, who I am not a fan of, he's probably a Democrat, probably a guy than doesn't get it, I'm going to go into the other room and say hello to people that didn't get your location," Donald Trump said at the end of Friday's speech.

At one point, Trump's campaign tried to bring more people in, but police had to turn them away.

Ho hum. Trump was uncivil to someone who was simply doing his (important) job – and who demonstrably knows more about doing his job than Trump does? That's dog-bites-man territory, people.

Also on Saturday, the Colorado Springs Fire Department confirmed that the reason Trump’s event started late was because he got stuck in a hotel elevator and had to be rescued by Colorado Springs firefighters.

The fire department said in a statement that Trump was trapped inside an elevator at The Mining Exchange Hotel with about 10 other people. Fire officials said Monday those inside were trapped for no more than 15 minutes.

Firefighters opened the top elevator hatch and lowered a ladder to get everyone out of the elevator.

Again, this got treated as simply an extra layer of Trump-being-Trump: You thought he was being a jerk when he did that? Well, wait until you hear what else he did! Orange sprinkles on top of the orange icing on the orange cupcake of boorishness that is the GOP nominee.

But here's the point everyone missed:They had him trapped in an elevator between floors, they were presumably the only ones who knew he was there – and they let him out! What were they thinking?

People, repeat after me: "Uhm, that rescue call? Oh, that turned out to be a false alarm. I think we saw Mr. Trump get into a limo a couple of minutes ago. Yeah. Pretty sure."

Mr. Trump may have no good reason to be upset with the local fire department, but I'm beginning to think the rest of us might. True, it means his Secret Service detail, who were also stuck in the elevator, would have to take one for the team, but they're trained to accept that possibility.

Nothstine is a writer, editor, political junkie, and renegade professor. Contact him here.

*Why p3?

"A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance, and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others." -Thomas Jefferson (1826)